wrote in message
...
On Jan 20, 11:55 pm, "Leon" wrote:


I've been around table saws for 15 years or so, and I began doing it
that way out of experience a few years ago. I don't expect to
convert anyone to my way of doing it, but I maintain that it in that
situation it's safer to back out than to go through. Longer pieces I
do at the band saw, and I would do the short ones there too if I
didn't feel it was safe.

I felt perfectly safe when I cut the end of my thumb off 20 years ago. I
had completed cutting a dado and had turned the saw off. You never know
when an accident can happen.


The OP sounds
inexperienced and the best approach here is to warn against an unsafe
procedure rather than give him a false sense of security and risk being
injured. With time he will learn through close calls and hopefully only
close calls that the unexpected can happen at any moment. Experience
will
help him recognize those times and how to better deal with the task.

The safety rules are good, but it's kind of like the building code.
You can follow all the rules and still make a crappy house. If you
understand what's behind the rule then you can understand when you're
in a situation where the rule isn't going to cover it. I have a scar
to remind me that using pushing sticks doesn't guarantee you're safe.

I NEVER use a push stick, they scare me to death. I always apply downward
pressure, typically I use a Gripper or a home made hold down devise with a
hook on the rear.


The biggest mistake I see people make is to just fixate on what is
happening at the cut and ignore what is happening at the fence. Get
your hands out of the path of the cut and the blade will do its job
just fine without you staring at it, as long as you do your job of
feeding the stock properly.

Yeah I used to think that way, I always keep my eye on the blade when it is
spinning. My lesson 20 years ago taught me that any thing can happen when
you are not paying attention to the blade.